Blood Money

I've been trying to avoid this issue for a long time. After all, you're not supposed to bring up sex, religion, or politics, (I guess because everyone is afraid of actually having good conversation) but as a political science major at North Carolina State University (GO PACK!) currently residing in Washington D.C., the time has come to defend my political views.

I am a Republican. Please, refrain from sobbing, screaming, cringing, or throwing rotten vegetables.

I am a Republican because most of the people in my life, some of whom I love very much, are in the military or planning to join the military and the Republican party supports the military better than the democratic party. Now, this is a free country and you are entitled to disagree with me, but allow me to explain myself.

Every Democratic representative I have researched thus far voted against the war in Iraq, but voted to send military forces to Afghanistan and is in favor of not only continuing our stay in the land of Afghans, but also wishes to continue searching for terrorist threats in Pakistan and have spoken positively about sending troops to Libya. However, the same representatives have continually voted against increasing military and department of defense funding. In fact, some wish to decrease it.

Now, can anyone find Waldo and what the hell is wrong with this picture? Whether you agree with any of the aforementioned conflicts is irrelevant, but please, no matter if you are a Libertarian, Communist, Socialist, Democrat, Independent, Green, please understand that we cannot fight the war on terror, or whatever the heck we're doing in Afghanistan or whatever we might do in Libya, on a shoe string budget. In fact, if we try, we risk putting the lives of U.S. troops in danger.

Republicans on the other hand, have continually voted to increase military spending and have drafted a 2012 budget that will increase department of defense funding by
4%. Knowing that my family, my friends, my neighbors, and their, family, friends, and neighbors will have funding to be well equipped in combat is what keeps the nightmares at bay.

So, to all the people out there that have made faces every time I have owned up to my right wing status; now you know, I bleed red in hopes that others won't have to..

Tick Tock Goes The Clock

I'm not big on regrets. I don't usually dabble in "what ifs", I like to avoid dwelling on the "could have beens". But I do like to remember. I like to take everything in, drink it up, store it somewhere deep, and then, sometimes before I go to bed, or even on the off chance I have enough free time to let my mind wander, I'll pull out those memories, and I relive them. Not the bad ones, the ones we have to remember so we can learn and grow and never repeat our mistakes. But, the memories of my Grandmother letting me decorate her fire place for Easter the year before she died, the day I watched my parents renew their vows and dance like no one was watching, walking on the beach at 5am the week after my high school graduation-these are the memories I dig up. The ones that make me smile and give me happy dreams,the ones that remind me that I should keep making more.

Life is short. It might not feel that way, after all, the average life expectancy in the U.S. is around 72 years of age, which is nothing to sneeze at, but it really isn't that long. Especially when we throw ourselves against the grindstone and work for tomorrows that never really come. And, trust me, I'm completely guilty as charged, but sometimes regrets are so overwhelming that we let them rule our lives. We allow them to consume our every thought and eventually, the here and now disappears beneath the shoulda woulda couldas of yesterday.

Usually my blogs are ridiculously long rants about nothing too important, but this one doesn't need to be drawn out because the more time you spend reading this, the less time you have to take advantage of what is happening right now. Stop waiting for tomorrow, stop waiting for the rainy days, stop waiting for the almosts, the maybes, the things you can't control; and start living now. Cling to the people you love, call up the people you miss, do that one thing you've been dying to do, just take the time to step outside and look at the beauty that God created for you to enjoy because this is it folks, this is all we get. Because really, when we reach the end of the road, it's the memories: the sunny days, the moonlit nights, the way that special someone looked in the candlelight, that complete us, because in the end, the people we love and the times we share with them are the only things that get left behind. So forgive, forget, and create. :)